The need for a Baseball Stadium

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The need for a Baseball Stadium

KC's plea for a baseball stadium has made me think about the Innovation Village & the push for a football stadium. It is no secret that ALL of our athletic facilities need to be upgraded to bring us on level playing field with our SBC members.

The Burrow is getting a much needed face lift and should give the basketball program a much nicer place to call home and should be sufficient for a while.

Now, here is a question that I believe is legitimate, does the football program really need a 30,000 seat stadium, right now? IMO we could start with a much smaller 20,000 of seating comparable to Lockhart with the option of upgrading to 30,000 seats later, I also understand the higher cost involved of doing so later, but would allow us to grow into the stadium and sell-out a few games - thus creating a larger demand for tickets which would then justify the upgrade. And here is where I am going with this, build a smaller football stadium and defer the difference of the cost for a baseball stadium. And why couldn't the baseball stadium be part of this Innovation Village proposal where the cost of the thing could be absurd over a period of years much like the football stadium.

IMO, some form of compromises will have to be made in getting our facilities on par with our other SBC members.

I am proponent of dreaming big, but the process that has dragged itself out way to long has brought a bit of reality that maybe we do need to scale down a bit and try to achieve the many needs that is very apparent. I would rather us play in a smaller more intimate stadium then a half empty stadium - look at the difference between playing at Dolphin stadium & Lockhart, no comparison there.

We are at a stage that we can take a step back and focus on the many needs we have and addressing them in a way that will yield the best result for our current needs, without breaking the bank.

Just some thoughts to consider.

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The need for a Baseball Stadium

Bytor,

I wondered that myself. I asked Angelos if the stadium was designed to be enlarged if needed. He never responded to my question. The stadium is to be built in phases and ultimately would have a roof but we know that probably won't happen.

I think the idea is good but I would really hate to have to start the engineering process all over again and design a stadium that can start out small and be enlarged without looking like it is put together piecemeal.

I am all for doing this. I think it is a good idea. I think the athletics at FAU are begging to take off and be successful. We have great coaches in place. Now if only we can get the facilities up to par.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT

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The need for a Baseball Stadium

The baseball stadium isn't a terribly large project. It could be done for far less than either the football stadium or the basketball arena. I really like the set-up of the current baseball stadium. It just needs to be brought up to date with some changes to the bleachers etc. I think a nice brick facade would do wonders as well as a permanent baseball facility located in close proximity to the stadium. For $3-5 million it could be completely remodeled.

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The need for a Baseball Stadium

They talked about the upgrades to the Baseball Stadium 2 years ago and it kind of fizzled out. Bytor before the innovation Village I seem to remember mention on the board about start smaller utilizing funds for both. I agree the stadium is to be a phased build so a 20K now and add makes very good sense.

Illi the drawings show different stages of growth for the stadium so it wouldn't seem to be that big of a deal to take out a few rows all around the stadium and throw some back for Baseball if they needed to do that.

Owlfan1 is right about the cost you are talking very small amounts to have big results. It does need the face lift they had planned though.

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The need for a Baseball Stadium

i had a chance to speak to angelos about the baseball stadium… he told me that they are "close" to getting the $10 million needed to really build a nice, beautiful park, encompassing the fieldhouse as the grandstand and the the lockerrooms, training rooms, batting cages, etc, with the seats on top of that, looking into the field… if that makes any sense

i think what gets lost in all this is craig angelos has the shittiest job in america, possibly… imagine how hard this is to balance to an athletic deparment growing in every sport SIMULTANEOUSLY… the 3 major programs (football, basketball, baseball) have outstanding coaches (two of which are hall-of-famers, one who is cracking the ice as an amazing coach)… no money is had at hand and attendance flat-out SUCKS, across the spectrum… how does he please everyone? the answer is it's IMPOSSIBLE… angelos does an OUTSTANDING job doing his best to grow the program equally amongst all sports… there is NO simple answer to any of these concerns we all have.. we all need to go through the growing pains together and it will pay off down the road

The proposed upgrades are far more extensive than I thought when I put an estimated price tag of $3-5 million. The design for the proposed stadium basically looks like a brand new state of the art stadium. It will definitely turn some heads when teams come to play FAU.

GO OWLS!!!

You can run kitties, but you can't hide!!!

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The need for a Baseball Stadium

Without question Angelos job is dificult, but I do believe he realized the task he had in front of him when he accepted this job and stayed after numerous offers eslewhere. This is a growing athletic program, with it comes many challenges and he done a great job so far with limited resources and in the same sense could yield great potential, it just a matter of bringing everything together and patience is key on all fronts.

Looking at the planned Baseball stadium, even that could be scaled back a bit and still make it attractive enough to host regionals, which I am assuming is part of the concept of building the stadium.